


To Master with Love

by Umeko



Series: Forbidden Fruit [2]
Category: Chevalier: Le Chevalier D'Eon
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, First Crush, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 21:53:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umeko/pseuds/Umeko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teillagory reminisces about one of his students, the infatuation she had for him and his regret over what almost was. Teacher-student flirtation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Master with Love

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer- The anime Le Chevalier D’Eon and characters were not owned by me and no profit is made from this fanfiction
> 
> Teillagory always knew Lia was not like his other students but winning some battles does not mean winning the war. Some things are better left unsaid. Teacher-student flirtation.

“Master, did you ever wonder…”

The salty wind tugged at D’Eon’s hair, ruffling it so that he was painfully reminded of his sister’s unruly tresses. Teillagory shot a warning glance at his student but D’Eon did not notice it.

“What if you had agreed then to my father’s proposal about Lia…” the young knight hesitated.

“It’s getting cold on deck, D’Eon. Let’s go,” Teillagory firmly took hold of D’Eon’s elbow and steered him below. D’Eon was not his sister. No one could replace Lia.

* * *

 

It was highly unusual for a little girl to be interested in swords. It had been a breach of his own principles accepting her in his class. Perhaps he had thought that the rigors of training would discourage her and little Lia would go back to sewing samplers at her mother’s knee. He was so wrong. She thrived on the harsh regime of the fencing class, quickly outshining his other students. She was good for her brother, encouraging him to continue his training whenever he faltered. He tried to treat his students equally, Lia and D’Eon included. However, it soon became apparent that the old master’s best pupils were the de Beaumont siblings.

He would have been happier if Lia had been a real boy. What future was there for a swordswoman, even of Lia’s skill and intelligence? He pretended she was a boy and would have continued to do so if it weren’t for the undeniable fact that she was blossoming into a young woman under his eyes. Lia always did show her feelings too openly.

She had taken a bad fall during a lesson. “Hurts…” she whined softly. The liniment was taken out he rubbed her leg as he would have for any of his students. Somehow, he became painfully aware of how delicate her ankle was and how her skin was white and supple under his fingers. “Higher, Master…” she urged breathlessly as his fingers climbed. He could feel her knee through the coarse cloth of her breeches, His heart was thumping and he wondered if hers was as well. He glanced up at her face and thought he must be mistaken. There was a little smile on her young lips. His hand was on her thigh now…

A shout from one of the boys broke the spell. Embarrassed, the fencing master pulled his hand away. Teillagory chided himself for his unseemly thoughts. She was fourteen for Christ’s sake, young enough to be his granddaughter. _Yet…_ They had chatted both long and happily both during and outside their lessons. She had listened eagerly to his tales like a wide-eyed child. Part of him was flattered by the attention she gave him. His students were like his sons and grandsons ever since he lost his own son.

Teillagory frowned when Lia showed up one morning with her vest slightly open so that he could see the swell of her youthful breasts against the fabric of her shirt when they fenced. She wished him a Happy New Year with a kiss to the cheek which felt more than a chaste peck for a grandfather. The incident with the sprain was the latest in a series of what the old master finally recognized as attempts at flirting by this girl-woman he had been treating as any one of his students.

Now he was in a bind. His marriage was arranged, no love match but a social transaction between two families. Constant soldiering kept him away from a proper courtship with his wife. Adele did her wifely duty by him all the same, producing their only child- his son and heir- before the childbed fever took her away. Teillagory never thought much about remarriage afterwards. If need be, he saw to his physical needs the same way most of his fellows did, a quick visit to the local brothel for an anonymous fuck in exchange for some coin. He never kept a mistress and he had no daughter to rear. He never had to deal with a woman’s wiles until now, much less a force like Lia.

 _Send her home. Let her parents sort it out…_ the voice of reason beckoned. He should have put a stop to it ages ago.

“Lia has always been a wilful child. We have been thinking… Perhaps a marriage would be a stabilizing factor in her life,” Monsieur de Beaumont mused. Teillagory breathed a sigh of relief.

“So you have someone in mind?” The de Beaumonts exchanged a meaningful look before their guest.

“Well, Master Teillagory, forgive us. But we would like to ask you if you would be keen on taking Lia as your wife…” Lia’s mother blurted out. No one wanted a headstrong girl such as Lia as his wife even with the generous dowry her parents were willing to provide her with. “She listens to you. It’s always Master Teillagory this, Master Teillagory that…” Lia’s father added. “Sir, we know that you have taken especially good care of our children…”

Of course he had turned them down politely then, citing his age. No, this was no real love from Lia, just a passing phase, a schoolboy’s crush. Yes, he had laughed with her, the same way he’d laugh with D’Eon or any of the other boys. She was just another student to him, albeit a very talented one. No, he had no desire to wed her. Lia’s fiery character was not suited to his. If he did remarry, he wanted a demure woman content to sit at home tending to the children and housekeeping. Of course he had not known that their conversation was being eavesdropped upon by Lia...

* * *

 

She had come to him early that morning, before the lessons started.

“Why?” she asked emotionally. “Why did you turn it down?”

Before his brain could form a coherent reply, she was on him. Clumsy kisses on his lips. Her body pressed flush against his and Teillagory cursed the fact that that soldier between his legs saw fit to report for duty then. His years of near-celibacy and self-imposed discipline was no match for her sheer youthful passion and exuberance. He overbalanced and fell over backwards onto the path with her on top of him. The jarring pain reminded him that he was her teacher and she was but a child compared to him.

“Lia! Stop this at once,” he barked a command. Lia froze. She glared at him balefully with her emerald eyes. Her vest was open and her shirt…  Red-faced, he averted his eyes. She was still straddling his hips like a common whore and he was certain she could feel that telltale bulge in his breeches pressing into her thigh. His hands were about her so-tiny waist. Their position was overall, compromising.

“Lia, get off me this instant and tidy up. You’re a mess and your brother will be here any instant. Do you wish him to see us like this, you selfish girl?” The mention of her brother did it. Hurt, she climbed off his hips and that traitorous soldier of Teillagory’s yearned for the contact it had lost. Teillagory hoped he had won this battle of wills for good. If there was anyone selfish little Lia cared about, it was D’Eon.

She turned away from him, long enough for him to coax his stubborn soldier to ease and dust off his clothes. When she finally spoke, there was an icy edge to her voice. She had redone her shirt and vest and looked as if they had engaged in a sparring match.

“Master, I will have the swords ready for the students. This is the last time I’m coming here… Mama says I am to learn to be a proper lady at Aunt Henriette’s from tomorrow.”

There was no time for him to answer her for D’Eon came trotting in through the gate then with his fellows.

* * *

 

The next Teillagory heard, she had been selected to attend to the Queen at Versailles. Contrary to her words, she did come to visit her brother at the school, until he enlisted in the dragoons. Her manner to him was cool, professional for a few years. It was only recently that she had started to thaw and warm to her former teacher again, probably at D’Eon’s urging. He thought she had found the love she craved and could not obtain from him. She had matured in those years, blossoming from that wilful girl into a poised young woman. Of course he had not known the dangerous path she took from Versailles to her eventual demise.

If he had married her, what could have been? Would she be content to wait on his needs and those of their children? Since his son’s death in battle he had never thought of fatherhood. Could he have satisfied her in the marital bed at his advanced age? Would he have been able to tame her nature or would that wild streak in her show through? Would she have come to the realization that her love for him was but an infatuation and seek her true soul-mate elsewhere? Would she have been exasperated by his demands for a traditional wife? They would never know. Perhaps she would have left him eventually, disillusioned and embittered by her lot in life.

Yes, it would have been a mistake for him to marry an idealistic young girl such as Lia.

With a weary sigh, the old man turned his attention to the black waves about them and gazed the starry sky overhead.   

“We would have made each other very unhappy, I believe, Lia,” he muttered to no one in particular.

 _“Agreed, Master…”_ He started as he thought he heard Lia’s voice. He turned at the sound only to see D’Eon slinking off below decks. 


End file.
